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How to catch the eye of an international VC: Bill Tai dissects his Australian investment decisions
Australian start-ups are increasingly attractive to international investors as the technology and start-up sector evolves, especially if they’re leveraging their geographical location and have solid plans to go global, says internationally renowned venture capital investor Bill Tai.
Tai is in Australia as part of the OzAPP roadshow, giving a series of talks about big data and entrepreneurialism around the country.
He told StartupSmart it mattered less and less where tech start-ups were based.
“In the past, it wasn’t really viable to have start-ups that were competitive with those in the USA because the kind of start-ups that are happening generally speaking today are different,” Tai says.
The first few overlapping waves of start-ups (from the late 70s to the early 90s, and the late 80s the late 90s) usually required more than $50 million in start-up funding and required larger teams of specialised skills.
“These waves laid the foundation for the kind of start-ups that are possible now, because now everything start-up is essentially a user interface (UI) for data from the cloud. So LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, they’re just UIs. And you can start UI companies anywhere,” Tai says. “So now the big question is can you scale it into a big company or not.”
“Because the market here is small, the start-up companies that succeed will have to be players in the broader English language markets,” he says.
“Shoes of Prey was amazing because the people were fantastic and had a good heritage as they had been very successful at what they had done in the past and had a very unique business model at the time and proof that they could execute because they had already developed revenue without any venture money,” Tai says, adding Shoes of Prey had a competitive advantage over US-based start-ups with similar ideas given Australia’s proximity to China.
“Shoes of Prey is in a geographic position to leverage heavy manufacturing assets in China on the same timezone. If you tried to execute the same business in the USA, and had your team having to work in the middle of night, it’s just not workable so they had a natural competitive advantage,” Tai says.
Tai says his questions for Shoes of Prey before signing the cheque were about how much venture capital they would need to scale to a point where they would become self-sufficient.
Tai says both Shoes of Prey and Canva stood out because both founder teams had business experience.
“I’ve funded many, many extraordinarily smart entrepreneurs in the United States with basically valuable outcomes that have never made a penny before, but these two had built a business and knew what it meant,” Tai says.
He adds the educational system, well developed gross domestic product, a high standard of living, and mobile phone penetration means Australia is a good test market for software and tech start-ups.
“There is proof you can scale companies from Australia, such as Atlassian, which is a world-class leader in its space but started here,” Tai says. “Now we’re in a world where if the cloud infrastructure really becomes commoditised, then it really is possible for Australian start-ups.”
Given the need for Australian start-ups to go global from day one, Tai says aspiring founders should stop wasting their time not going for big markets.
“It takes the same amount of time to build an app for five family members as it does to build one that will serve a billion people,” Tai says. “Because if it works you’ll have a shot at a really big outcome rather than a huge success in a small market, so I’d encourage Australian start-ups to think big.”


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J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. may not have discovered the breach in its computer systems as quickly this past summer if it hadn’t gone looking for trouble elsewhere, people briefed on the investigation said.
Ebola timeline traces the outbreak from a 2-year-old in Guinea all the way to American soil.
U.S. News is tracking 2016 visits to Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. consumers expect better economic growth and rising incomes in the coming months, pushing a measure of confidence to a seven-year high in October.
In this photo by Ahn Young-joon, a phone store worker dressed as Santa Claus keeps customers in line as they wait to buy Apple's iPhone 6, in Seoul, South Korea. The device went on sale Friday in South Korea, one of the world's most wired societies, with 85 percent of its 50 million people online and 40 million smartphones. South Korea is also home to the world's top-selling smartphone maker Samsung, which is seeing more competition by cheaper local brands in China and India and by Apple in developed nations.
'Are we in 1825?' the comedian asked when Instagram removed the photo.
Kaci Hickox defied quarantine, went bike-riding Thursday.
Regulators gutted a key rule that would have prevented future banking woes.
The head of the FCC is laying the groundwork for expanding the agency’s authority over broadband providers, but would still allow them to cut deals with content companies for special access.
The school's mascot is the wildcat.
Try these painless ways to boost your 401(k) balance next year.
Search for activities that feel fulfilling and worthwhile in retirement.
LONDON (AP) — Britain is repaying some of the 2 billion pounds ($3.2 billion) it still owes investors who helped finance World War I.
To get the best deals, schedule your purchases using this weekly calendar.
PARIS (AP) — A fire at the Paris headquarters of French state radio is sending columns of thick black smoke out of more than a dozen windows.
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks are opening higher following big gains in Asia after Japan made moves to rev up its economy.
If you plan ahead, you can get great deals on even the most popular toys.
Nissan wants to fix air bag inflators that can explode with too much force.
Has your 401(k) been infected?
If you have a Medicare Cost plan, traditional Medicare will help you cover expenses incurred out-of-network.

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Sarhad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCI) President Sherbaz Bilour and Iranian Consul General Hamid Reza Ghomi have agreed to make joint efforts to boost bilateral trade and economic relations between the two Islamic countries.
During a meeting on Wednesday, both sides agreed on strengthening Pak-Iran bilateral trade and economic ties by signing a free trade agreement (FTA), building an effective banking channel, establishing markets along the border, eliminating illegal trade, exchanging business delegations, organising joint trade exhibitions and businessmen-to-businessmen meetings. It was agreed that a webinar would be organised by the SCCI and Mashhad Chamber of Commerce and Industry after Eid.
Bilour invited Iranian investors to invest in the potential sectors of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, including hydel power generation, marble, mining, furniture, honey, gems and especially the Special Economic Zone, which was being constructed under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).
Emphasising the need for the promotion of regional trade, the SCCI chief said that efforts had been initiated to remove hiccups and irritants in the way of trade with regional countries.
“There’s huge potential for further boosting trade between Pakistan and Iran, which stood at $359 million, including $36 million worth of exports from Pakistan and $323 million worth of imports from Iran,” Bilour added.
He called on Islamabad and Tehran to take serious initiatives to remove hurdles in the way of bilateral trade between the two countries.
The SCCI chief welcomed a deal between China and Iran worth $400 billion, besides the launch of a train service from Islamabad to Tehran and Turkey, which could boost friendly relations between those countries.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 15th, 2021.
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Papyrus and movable type were huge steps forward in their times, but the 20th century saw massive jumps in data storage. Paper and ink gave way to magnetic tape and various types of disk, and suddenly humanity could store so much more than just the written word. Unfortunately, we’ve also hit some major speed bumps along the way.
The photo you see above — the default wallpaper for Windows XP — is probably the most recognizable image in the world. What you probably didn’t know is that it’s a real photo, called Bliss, taken by Charles ‘Chuck’ O’Rear in 1996, and then sold to Microsoft for an undisclosed sum (but it was apparently one of the highest prices ever paid for a single photo). It seems fitting that, on April 1, a week before the April 8 retirement of Windows XP, we should honor technology’s most iconic image.
Microsoft, in conjunction with the Computer History Museum in Silicon Valley, has released the source code for MS-DOS 1.1, MS-DOS 2.0, and Word for Windows 1.1a. These programs are probably the three most important releases in the history of Microsoft: MS-DOS would create and secure Microsoft’s monopoly of the PC market for more than 20 years, and the massive success of Word for Windows would go on to cultivate Microsoft’s Office suite, which has generated hundreds of billions of dollars for the company.
Inside and out, the Mac has changed drastically over the last thirty years, but one aspect has remained relatively consistent: the all-in-one form factor. From the get-go, the Macintosh brand has largely been associated with the simplicity of an all-in-one device, and that tradition has carried on with the advent of the iMac. In honor of such an important anniversary, let’s take a look at some of the most notable all-in-one Macs ever released.
The concept of “second screen gaming” has gained significant traction over the last few years. It may seem like little more than a bullet point on the spec sheets of the PS4 and Xbox One, but secondary screens actually have a long history in the world of gaming. In fact, we’ve been using multiple screens for over three decades now. To better understand this growing trend, let’s take a look at the history of the second screen, and examine its evolution in the marketplace.
20 years ago today, at the stroke of midnight on December 10, 1993, Id Software uploaded a two-megabyte file that would change the history of gaming forever: doom1_0.zip. Doom, which was released as shareware, quickly spread across FTP servers and bulletin board systems, becoming the first PC gaming phenomenon and popularizing the FPS genre, and pioneering 3D game worlds and networked multiplayer.
In an interesting little nugget of computing and gaming history, it turns out that none other than Gabe Newell — then a bigwig member of Microsoft’s Windows team — was one of the reasons that Windows became a viable gaming platform, and probably why Windows went on to completely monopolize the consumer computing market for almost two decades. We raise this point now, of course, as Valve will soon be faced with making its own SteamOS and Steam Box viable for gaming.
In 1957, IBM began the construction of the Semi-Automatic Ground Environment, by far the world’s largest computer. Spanning more than 20 different locations, each equipped with acre-sized computers and connected by a nation-wide network of bleeding-edge 1,300-baud modems, SAGE was the pinnacle of the United States’ Cold War radar and missile air defenses.
Twenty years ago today, Intel launched the Pentium 60 CPU and changed the computing world for ever. Believe it or not, a revision of the original Pentium core still lives on today, in Intel’s bleeding-edge, 50-core Xeon Phi — a plug-in coprocessor that ushers us towards exascale supercomputing.
Without a doubt, Photoshop is a culturally significant piece of software, and it deserves to be preserved for posterity. Thanks to Adobe and the Computer History Museum, the source code of Photoshop version 1.0.1 for Mac is now available for non-commercial use.
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Wait for a 16-inch 2019 MacBook Pro
Apple may finally be bringing back a larger MacBook Pro after years of not offering a 17-inch model. The latest rumors don't suggest a new full return of the 17-inch MacBook Pro, but there is a larger one on the way according to Ming-Chi Kou.
9to5Mac shares the latest report where Kuo says we will see a 16-inch to 16.5-inch MacBook Pro with an all new design. This is reportedly coming in 2019 alongside a new 3.16-inch 6k x 3k monitor.
This will likely arrive in late 2019, so if you are willing to wait for summer or fall, you may be able to get a bigger screen with your MacBook Pro.
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— -- Recent raids by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department turned up more than 400 buckets of apparently counterfeit laundry detergents at multiple locations in the Los Angeles area.
ABC News was there when the raids were conducted. According to authorities, the fake detergent is available for sale at swap meets, fundraisers and online.
Investigators say that dealers allegedly buy the phony detergent for about $5 and then sell it for sometimes as much as five times the purchase price.
Counterfeiting overall is a nearly $500 billion a year business. This past year alone, Procter & Gamble has helped to identify close to 50 factories that are sending out counterfeit goods. The company which makes Tide, Downy and Gain detergents wants counterfeit products off the streets, and it has urged the U.S. Senate to pass relevant legislation. It has also provided tips to local law enforcement about possible counterfeit product.
Procter & Gamble spokeswoman Anne Candido says the sale of counterfeit laundry detergent has been on the rise. “We started seeing this really escalate starting about a year ago,” she said. “It’s showing up all over the place and the social media is the enabler.”
Lt. Geoffrey Deedrick of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department’s Office of Counterfeit and Piracy Team says one possible factor contributing to the rise could be that selling counterfeit laundry detergent is a lot less risky than selling other types of contraband.
“These guys are driving around with van loads of this stuff every day like it’s nothing,” Deedrick said. “If you made just as much money selling counterfeit Tide as heroin, what would you choose? The Tide.”
Charges stemming from arrests in the Los Angeles raids are pending, police said.
Once seized, samples from the allegedly counterfeit laundry detergent are sent to a Procter & Gamble lab in Cincinnati, Ohio, for quality testing and to determine if the product is indeed counterfeit.
Jack English, a senior scientist at Procter & Gamble, says that the risks of using counterfeit detergent could be very serious. “Without sounding too scary, the risks are quite large because we just don’t know. It would be like putting your family in a car that you have no idea where it came from.”
And while English found that the seized detergent looked and even smelled like the real stuff, he determined that there was an irregularly high amount of water in the product.
Procter & Gamble says consumers should not buy 5-gallon containers of any product being billed as Procter & Gamble detergent because the company doesn’t sell any detergents in that size. Consumers who have any questions about the detergents are advised to call the phone number on the label of any legitimate Procter & Gamble product.


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UK will not implement controversial EU copyright law.
The UK Minister for Universities and Science, Chris Skidmore, has confirmed the UK will not be implementing the EU Copyright Directive ‘article 13’ which EU countries must implement by the end of 2021.
The incoming EU law has been fiercely criticised by website owners as it will hold them accountable for not removing copyrighted content uploaded by users.
When Article 13 was originally proposed it prompted fears over the future of using memes as they invariably rely on copyrighted scenes from TV and film. These concerns were nullified when the proposed law was amended in 2019 to exclude copyright material that is “for purposes of quotation, criticism, review, caricature, parody and pastiche”.
However, there is a significant chance that article 13, in its current form, will impact distribution of ‘knowledge’ and academic processes that are vital to all Intel specialists. It is hoped that The UK governments’ stance will lift potential restrictions of knowledge sharing when dealing with non-EU countries.
The first ‘open’ social network revealed in the latest battle against big tech.
The foundation was formed in 2016 by Dominic Williams, a King’s College graduate, to develop a way of reversing the monopolisation of big tech companies who have taken over the internet.
To achieve their aim DFINITY have created the ‘Internet Computer protocol’ which they claim is unhackable as the software is hosted on an extended internet and therefore there is “nothing to hack”. The code for the protocol is set to be made available for developers later this year.
Wired Magazine recently included Mr Williams in their article of ‘Stories of People Racing to Save Us’ as an acknowledgement to his foundations work.
Mr Williams said “Startups rely on application programme interfaces (APIs) for their systems to operate, but the big tech companies can revoke or tamper with this access at their free will. We’ve seen it with the likes of Farmville creator Zynga, which had its valuation wiped out by permission changes imposed by Facebook.”
“As a result a handful of for-profit companies have created a monopolistic and closed internet. The DFINITY foundation is essentially extending the original internet with a more advanced protocol….this will extend the internet and allow it to host those services and software itself, thereby removing the ‘ownership’ of the current systems from the very large tech firms”.
Apple is reportedly preparing to launch a Smart Tag product.
According to reports from analyst Ming-Chi Kuo Apple are set to release AirTags, a ‘smart tag’ that can attach to any object and be tracked with an iPhone through the ‘Find My..” app, in the first half of this year.
It is anticipated that the tag will be a ‘Tile-like device’ that can be attached to any item (such as keys, purses and wallets etc.) and then will send a signal to the connected iPhone / iCloud account.
Ming-Chi Kuo is an analyst for TF International Securities, and he has previously provided accurate reports concerning Apple products.
Instagram is failing to attract older people to their platform.
Instagram is failing to attract older people as quickly as anticipated, according to new figures from the analysis firm eMarketer.
The social networks UK growth fell from 34% (2017) to just 7% (2019). This is the first time user growth has gone into single figures. In 2019 world user growth rate for Instagram fell from 18% (in 2018) to 12% and is expected to fall further in 2020 to around 8% growth.
eMarketer’s principle analyst, Debra Aho Williamson explained: “Instagram is still very popular with teens and young adults – this year  there will be more Instagram users than Facebook users in both the 18-25 and under-18 age groups.
“A big reason why Facebook has remained so large in the US is because people who are middle aged and older continue to use it, and that’s where the growth is happening.
“But for [Instagram] to grow more substantially, you want to see people who are maybe the parents of those teens and young adults…they are, but it’s just not happening as fast as we thought.”


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This is the UNest pitch deck to raise a $9m seed round in 2020.
UNest is an app democratizing access to smart financial solutions for all families.
It helps parents build a better financial future for their children. In five minutes, you can open a UTMA account for your child and no paperwork is required. All members receive access to advisor-guided investment plans, the app’s simple gifting feature, UNest Rewards and they can easily set up recurring contributions.
In 2018, Ksenia Yudina founded UNest in North Hollywood, California.
Millennials aren’t kids anymore. In fact, many have kids of their own. And UNest, founded by Ksenia Yudina, is targeting this cohort of new parents with a savings app.
UNest started as a college savings app, offering 529 college savings plans. Since its launch in 2018, the fintech has broadened its scope to include general savings accounts for kids.
“The feedback that we’ve heard from our existing users is that they don’t want to save just for education,” Yudina said. “They want to invest in their kids’ futures, but be able to save for their first car or a down payment on a home.”
Los Angeles-based UNest, which extended its seed round in January, announced a $9 million Series A on June 16 led by Anthos Capital with participation from investors like Northwestern Mutual Future Ventures and former NBA all-star Baron Davis.
As UNest has expanded its product offerings, its userbase has continued to grow, especially amid the coronavirus pandemic during which many parents are spending more time with their kids. Since February, UNest has added 25,000 accounts. The funding will be used to invest in more marketing and brand awareness as UNest looks to grow its userbase, Yudina said.
And the round was raised entirely remotely amid coronavirus shutdowns.
“The concern that most companies seem to have going into the pandemic is that there would be a lot of down rounds,” Peter Mansfield, chief marketing officer at UNest, told Business Insider.
Given the economic volatility over the past few months, it’s easy for founders to feel a bit bearish, Mansfield said. Instead, UNest was able to leverage the growth it had already experienced, resulting in a “a very big up round,” he added.
“We’re at a really fortunate spot because we didn’t really need to raise,” Mansfield said. “That probably gave us more confidence than the average bear to be able to go in there with our heads held high asking for a valuation that we thought was eminently fair.”
While UNest’s pitch deck itself has gone through a number of iterations, there are other factors to successful fundraising.
“Fundraising is all about relationship building,” said Yudina. “You have to get in front of them, you have to show your energy and drive, and prove why you’re the right person to solve this problem.”
“The pitch deck follows. It’s kind of like marketing materials, it’s post-fact,” Yudina said.
Part of UNest’s confidence came from building out an experienced team after its seed round, Yudina said. While Yudina had prior experience as a financial advisor at Capital Group’s American Funds, she didn’t have experience at a fintech. Mansfield led marketing in the early days of Marqeta, and Mike Van Kempen, UNest’s chief operating officer, joined UNest last year from Acorns.
“We built a super strong team with actual experience in fintech,” said Yudina, “and that’s what investors like.”
And proving you can deliver on product development and user acquisition is key when fundraising, Yudina said. For example, UNest launched with an iOS app, promising investors to build out an Android app, which it launched in February.
|Announced Date||Transaction Name||Number of Investors||Money Raised||Lead Investors|
|Jun 16, 2020||Series A – UNest||6||$9M||Anthos Capital|
|Jan 15, 2020||Seed Round – UNest||3||$1.5M||—|
|Jul 17, 2019||Seed Round – UNest||7||$2M||The Artemis Fund|
|Apr 5, 2018||Angel Round – UNest||—||$300K||—|
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Investa Office has announced that it has finalised a ten year lease of prime Pitt Street Mall space to fashion giant,
The international retailer has secured 2,741 square metres in Sydney Arcade at 400 George Street.
This is the first Sydney CBD store for Forever 21, after a five year search for a location that would meet the calibre they required to anchor their brand in Australia.
The brand has secured strong exposure in Sydney's most sought after shopping precinct with three interconnected levels, from lower ground to level one, that have prime street-level frontage.
The space that was previously occupied by Adidas, Glue, and Billabong, with be joined with a lower ground storage space that has been activated for retail use.
Forever 21 has over 480 stores globally and offers competitively prices clothes and accessories for all.
The companies five year Australian search has secured them other locations across the country, with their first store set to open in Brisbane in November 2014, followed closely by a North Ryde location in December.
Investa General Manager Sydney CBD Portfolio, Greg Long said that they have been focused on repositioning Sydney Arcade to take advantage of the strong demand from brands that require high impact spaces in prime locations.
“Our ability to convert lower ground storage to retail space has enabled the owners the capture significant capital value uplift by adding further valuable floor space and attracting the lease covenants of quality retailers,” Mr Long said.
Director of Real Estate and Business Development of Forever 21, Jatin Malhotra said that Pitt Street Mall has always been one of their top ten locations worldwide and that they are thrilled to be opening.
“Australia is a terrific market which provides great scale, enabling us to expand further in the coming years,” Mr Malhotra said.
With Forever 21 joining the likes of H&M, Zara, Uniqlo, and Sephora in Pitt Street Mall as it secures itself as the most tightly held retail market in Australia with a distinct international appeal.


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It should look pretty crisp on Xbox One X.
A few months ago, Remedy Entertainment showed a gameplay trailer of Control at the PlayStation E3 2018 event. The game uses the same engine as Quantum Break and is coming to Xbox One, PC, and PlayStation 4 in a few months. 505 Games confirmed that the title will be enhanced for Xbox One X, but didn’t provide any further details until now. Control is expected to launch on August 27, priced at $60.
According to an Amazon listing for Control, the game supports “4K” and “HDR” on Xbox One X. Oddly enough, the Microsoft Store just says the game is Xbox One X Enhanced, but doesn’t list any other details besides that.


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GCCSCL will be held from the 8-10 October 2018 at the Oman Convention & Exhibition Centre showcasing logistics services, shipping, maritime services and investment opportunities.
The global supply chain and logistics sector is witnessing massive shifts in its management and operational approach. Latest development and innovation in technology, the growth of multimodal transportation, and significant growth in automation processes, offer immense opportunity and infrastructure for supply chain leaders in both managing and growing their supply chain operations.
Owing to its strategic location, diverse economy and infrastructural support, the Sultanate of
Oman and mainly the GCC continues to be one of the most lucrative and beneficial trading and logistics hubs in the world. A well-planned and developed infrastructure in the form of ports, shipping, aviation, warehousing and free-zones has played a key role in boosting the region’s supply chain and logistics sector.
GCCSCL will be serve as an ideal platform for companies in the logistics sector to showcase their products and services and meet the decision makers in the industry.
8 – 10 October 2018
Oman Convention & Exhibition Centre


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Our A.Team ramped up and shipped a prototype in the time it usually takes to hire one engineer. To grab an expert team of builders who've built together before—front end, back end, design... It's game changing.
— Noam, CEO of Waze (acq. by Google)
Waze CEO Noam Bardin assembled an A.Team to build his next product PayGo — a new platform aiming to bring autonomy back to journalism by eliminating subscription walls and offering a way to pay-as-you-go. PayGo's A.Team created a proof of concept in less than a month, and has since began creating the MVP to be launched publicly in late 2021.
Full Stack Developer
Full Stack Developerr
Typescript, GraphQL, Next.js
AWS, CSS, SASS/LESS, AMP, Figma


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The tech that underpins the biggest cryptocurrency in the world is branching out.
Microsoft is experimenting with blockchain technology to help people control their digital identities, while also giving users control over who accesses that data.
Tunde Aderemi Ibrahim, popularly known as TundeBuremo is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of LoadNG Automated Systems, a Nigeria-based cryptocurrency company expanding its reach in Nigeria and other.
Blockchain technology creates a viable, decentralised record of transactions – the distributed ledger – which allows the substitution of a single master database.
While fintech is on the rise across the region, this new money transfer via blockchain by the central bank will no doubt.
How Does The Bitcoin Network Process Transactions? Bitcoin marketplace BitBuddy aims to help make bitcoin investment and transactions a transparent and simple affair for. While this may disquiet some, it does mean that any transaction on the bitcoin network cannot be tampered with. 5 – Divisibility The smallest unit of a bitcoin is called a satoshi. Bitcoin, the first and leading cryptocurrency
Blockchain technology enables a collective group of select participants to share data. With blockchain, transactional data from multiple sources can be collected.
Blockchain technology is fast becoming one of the most groundbreaking tools to transform business. Here’s what MBAs need to.
Blockchain is the technology through which cryptocurrencies and information can be shared. What makes blockchain technology so valuable is that it removes the .
Blockchain is a decentralized, distributed electronic database shared across a public or private network. Every transaction in a blockchain database is shared.
Blockchain basically refers to a data structure in which the information is contained in an encrypted and non-centralized way.
16 May 2020.
While blockchain technology isn't simple when you dig into the nitty-gritty,
distributed ledger, which is what the blockchain effectively acts as.


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CITY OF LOS ANGELES TO VOTE ON "THE BEST BURGER IN TOWN"
May 21, 2010 (PRLEAP.COM) Lifestyle NewsLos Angeles, Calif. (May 21, 2010) In honor of National Hamburger Month, dineLA, LA INC and ATCOST.COM are conducting an online vote to determine once and for all which LA restaurant has "The Best Burger in Los Angeles".
This referendum has been called in the hopes of settling a longstanding and passionate debate as to which burger is actually "the best" burger in a city that has always laid claim to being the undisputed Burger Capital of the World.
Through May 31st, Los Angeles burger lovers will be able to cast a vote for their favorite hamburger directly on the dineLA and Los Angeles Convention and Visitors Bureau Facebook Fan Page located at www.facebook.com/losangelesfan. Nominees include BLD, In-N-Out, The Shack, Apple Pan, 26 Beach and Father's Office among many others.
In addition, dineLA will be offering daily deal vouchers where LA residents can save 50% off food and drinks at the featured restaurants. These daily deal vouchers will only be made available once a minimum number of people agree to buy them, so burger lovers everywhere are encouraged to invite friends and family to participate in the promotion and share the deals via email, Facebook and Twitter. The vouchers are good for anything on the restaurant's menu.
Through AtCost.com's groundbreaking collective buying technology, buyers can get an even better deal than the 50% off when they decide to actually promote and "share" the deal with friends via email, Facebook and Twitter.
"AtCost.com is the only platform on the web that instantly gives people a better deal just for sharing with friends. The more people you share the deal with, the more you save. Combined with the ability to purchase directly on Facebook or within one of our interactive banners, AtCost.com empowers any merchant or publisher to create a unique social shopping experience." said Michael Reinstein, Founder and CEO of AtCost.com.
Burger lovers are encouraged to get behind their favorite burger joint and help their friends save money on the best burgers in the city. For convenience, the daily deal vouchers are available for purchase through www.atcost.com, www.discoverlosangeles.com or directly on Facebook through the www.facebook.com/dineLA Facebook Fan Page and the Los Angeles Convention and Visitors Bureau Facebook Fan Page www.facebook.com/losangelesfan. People that sign up for the new DineLA Daily Deal Email, will also be entered to win FREE vouchers to every featured restaurant.
AtCost.com has developed a self-service social shopping platform that empowers anyone to create customized Group Buying opportunities on Facebook and concurrently across the web. AtCost's patent-pending distributed commerce technology makes it possible for consumers to make impulse purchases directly inside the Facebook platform (either on a fan page or directly on a "wall" or newsfeed) as well as across the web in embeddable display ads and banners. The AtCost platform includes a groundbreaking instant discounting system that rewards customers with deep discounts at the point of sale when users "share" offers with friends via Facebook, Twitter or E-mail. The more people users share the deals with, the more money they instantly save.
AtCost also operates www.atcost.com, an online shopping resource and newsletter, which finds and reports on unique 'daily deal' offers in more than 60 cities across the United States, United Kingdom, Canada and Australia. AtCost.com provides consumers with a free, fast and simple way to find the best offers available online from sites like Groupon.com, LivingSocial and MyCityDeal. Atcost.com is based in Beverly Hills, California.
dineLA is a dynamic marketing initiative between LA INC., American Express and the LA restaurant community to promote the scale and variety of LA restaurant and food experiences to locals and visitors. dineLA's comprehensive Web site-www.dineLA.com-provides detailed information and search capabilities for over 2,000 area restaurants; chef profiles; a culinary events calendar; monthly enter-to-win giveaways; e-newsletter; online chef and restaurant videos; as well as engaging and timely editorial content. dineLA seeks to position Los Angeles among the top restaurant cities in the world and to build awareness, traffic and revenue for restaurants throughout the greater LA area. In addition, dineLA plays an active role promoting the LA restaurant scene year-round through involvement in industry events such as the LA Wine Fest, the Art of Food & Wine Palm Desert, and wine & dineLA. For more information, please visit: www.dineLA.com.
ABOUT LA INC.
LA INC. The Los Angeles Convention and Visitors Bureau is a private, nonprofit business association whose primary mission is to market and promote Los Angeles as the premier site for meetings, conventions and leisure travel. Though not part of city government, LA INC. is recognized as the city's official tourism marketing organization. For more information, visit the official visitor information website of Los Angeles at www.discoverLosAngeles.com.


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The FTC has taken its first ever safe harbor enforcement action against a US business that said it was safe harbor certified for data exports from Europe when, in fact, it was not. Could this pave the way for more safe harbor enforcement in future? Phil Lee reports.
Who: Federal Trade Commission
When: 6 August 2009
Law stated as at: 1 September 2009
Rumours have existed for some time now that the United States' Federal Trade Commission ("FTC") has been looking to flex its safe harbor enforcement muscle, and it at last seems to have found a suitable case to enforce.
The FTC and the safe harbor regime
In the United States, the FTC is the regulator charged with ensuring both consumer protection and effective market competition. Under this broad spread of responsibility, the FTC also enforces breaches of the "safe harbor" regime administered by the Department of Commerce to govern exports of personal data from the European Economic Area (the "EEA") to the US.
Broadly speaking, businesses are not permitted to export personal data outside of the EEA unless they satisfy one of a number of possible legal criteria that ensures the non-EEA data importer will afford "adequate" protection to the data it receives (principle 8 of Directive 95/46/EC, better known as the Data Protection Directive). In many instances, the data exporter and data importer will satisfy this requirement by entering a data export agreement on standard terms that have been approved by the European Commission (commonly referred to as a "model contract"). However, where the data importer is a US entity, it may alternatively choose to certify itself under the "safe harbor" regime, in which instance a model contract is not required.
The safe harbor regime was created back in 2000 pursuant to an agreement reached between the United States and the European Union. Eligible US businesses that voluntarily certify under safe harbor agree to adhere to seven safe harbor privacy principles (available here, and including principles as to notice, choice and data security) and are deemed to provide "adequate" data protection for the personal data they import from the EEA.
FTC enforcement action
The FTC took enforcement action against a Californian company, Balls of Kryptonite, and its owner Jaivin Karnani, following a suite of complaints from European consumers. Balls of Kryptonite operates the websites www.bestpricedbrands.co.uk and www.bitesizedeals.co.uk, selling electronic goods such as cameras and camcorders. The websites misled consumers into believing that they were buying from a UK business and therefore had the benefit of UK manufacturer warranties when, in fact, the goods were all sold by Balls of Kryptonite in Pasadena. Upon receiving the goods, consumers found themselves charged undisclosed import duties and left with invalid warranties. The FTC therefore chose to take enforcement action to stop the "deceptive practices" undertaken by Balls of Kryptonite.
However, as a separate issue, the FTC also charged Balls of Kryptonite with deceiving consumers that it was self-certified under the safe harbor regime. Despite claiming to have signed up to the safe harbor privacy principles and certified with the Department of Commerce, it had not. A list of entities which have certified under safe harbor can be found on the Department of Commerce's safe harbor website here – and Balls of Kryptonite is conspicuous only by its absence from this list.
Why this matters:
The Department of Commerce and FTC have long been criticised by commentators within Europe for giving nothing more than the slightest nod towards the protection of personal data exported from Europe under the safe harbor regime. To support their criticisms, commentators have often pointed to the fact that, despite purportedly providing "adequate" protection for personal data, the FTC had not (until now) ever brought any enforcement action relating to safe harbor breaches.
The FTC will hope that this enforcement action will go some way to addressing these criticisms and resolving European concerns. However, it is worth noting that this case is being brought a company that deceived consumers into thinking it was safe harbor certified when, in fact, it was not (and some will inevitably hold that view that safe harbor enforcement was merely an afterthought to the main enforcement action for deceiving consumers that Balls of Kryptonite operated in the United Kingdom). There can be little doubt that it would have been more significant had the FTC brought enforcement action against a company that had self-certified under safe harbor, but had failed to abide by the seven safe harbor privacy principles – as this would have shown the FTC's willingness to actively enforce non-compliant certified companies.
Nevertheless, this is a move in the right direction and may pave the way for future safe harbor enforcement. The FTC has filed its complaints in this case with the Californian district courts and Balls of Kryptonite is currently subject to a restraining order requiring it to halt its deceptive representations until the case is finally decided. Assuming the final decision favours the FTC (which seems likely), the FTC may well develop an appetite to search for other safe harbor breaches to enforce. Safe harbor certified US business would therefore be well advised to check the protections they afford to European data they import – or risk incurring the wrath of the FTC.


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Published on October 26th, 2015 | by Millennium Magazine Staff0
Online Fraud-Fighting Facts
(NAPSI)—Shoppers are chipping in to combat identity theft in a new way. They’re paying for the goods and services they buy with a new generation of credit cards that use microchips to keep customer information safer.
This EMV technology—named for the companies behind it: Europay, MasterCard and Visa—is now required at all retailers. Any merchants that haven’t installed the appropriate card readers become liable for counterfeit purchases, rather than the liability falling on the credit card companies.
The technology in the microchip makes it more difficult for criminals to forge fakes and easier for merchants to authenticate cardholders. The change comes as card fraud has more than doubled in the U.S. over the last 15 years while falling in much of the rest of the world where chip-enabled cards have been in place for a good deal of that time.
Not Available Online
Consumers should note, however, that while this technology is designed to make in-person sales transactions more secure, it does not increase online security for online transactions.
Despite the early success, additional technology and professionals are needed in the information security sector. In fact, a 2015 (ISC)2 Global Information Security Workforce Study found that 62 percent of survey respondents say their organizations have too few information security professionals, up from 56 percent in 2013. The same report estimates that the global shortfall in the information security workforce will reach 1.5 million in five years.
For people with a passion for technology, there has never been a better time to get into the industry. Higher education institutions are working with industry leaders to meet this workforce demand with innovative curricula aligned with industry standards. The University of Phoenix College of Information Systems and Technology offers a number of cyber security degrees and certificates.
For more information on University of Phoenix’s degree offerings, visit www.phoenix.edu.


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You read the headline right. T-Mobile has released the Android Nougat update for the now three year old HTC One M8. The update has passed final Q&A within the carrier and is now starting to hit customer phones. The news is a little bit of a surprise for a couple of different reasons. First, did I mention that the One M8 is three years old? It was released in March 2014 and as a general rule, anything over two years doesn’t see a major update.
Second, the One M8 runs on the Snapdragon 801 processor. While it was a solid processor at the time, Qualcomm has since stopped supporting it. Further, because of the lack of support, many manufactures did not update devices running the 801. Sony would be probably the most notable of those who decided not to update their older devices.
For their part, HTC and T-Mobile seem to have ignored the memo which, from a customer perspective, is great to see. When the HTC One
M8 launched, it was running Android KitKat. So this phone has seen three major software updates. That’s almost unheard of in mobile devices.
So, for those of you who are still rocking your One M8 and are on T-Mobile, the Nougat update will weigh in at just over 1GB so you will want to make sure that you are on Wi-Fi to download it. The overall install time will be between 20-30 minutes so make sure you have plenty of battery (or connected to AC) and some patience.


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‘A whole new world’: Coke has a sponsorship deal with a virtual soccer star in ‘FIFA 18’
From Alex Morgan to Cristiano Ronaldo, Coca-Cola has a long history of using soccer sponsors. Now, for the first time, the beverage behemoth is using a virtual one.
In EA’s upcoming “FIFA 18” game for Playstation 4, on sale Sept. 29, Coca-Cola will be promoted through the fictional soccer star Alex Hunter. Players can play as Hunter, who, after rising to fame as a member of the LA Galaxy team, signs a deal with Coca-Cola and shoots a commercial in one of the scenes of the game. The initiative is the latest part of Coca-Cola’s 20-year partnership with EA and was created in collaboration with Anomaly, Mercado McCann and Havas.
“For us, this reinvents brand content and how we approach advertising,” said Alban Dechelotte, senior entertainment marketing manager for Coca-Cola Co. “This is a whole new world.”
For Coca-Cola, it’s all about engaging fans across multiple dimensions. “It gives another way consumers can appreciate the brand,” said Matt Wolf, vp of entertainment, ventures and strategic alliances at Coca-Cola Co. “We think it’s a natural evolution of where content is going.”
Coca-Cola and EA are using their virtual sponsor in every way they would a real celebrity in an effort to “try to blur lines” between reality and the virtual world, said Dechelotte.
For instance, to promote the in-game story, Coca-Cola has created a spot from the scene where Hunter stars in a Coke commercial. Dechelotte said the story reminded his team of Coca-Cola’s commercial featuring Pittsburgh Steelers star “Mean” Joe Greene, which premiered in 1979 and aired during the Super Bowl in 1980. Today, it has more than 3.6 million views on YouTube. So the team decided to pay homage to it, further blurring the lines between reality and imagination. In the original commercial, a kid offers his Coke to “Mean” Joe Greene. In this version, a kid offers a Coke to Hunter. The brand is sharing the spot on social media starting on Sept. 21.
Coca-Cola is also distributing limited-edition custom cans with the digitalized Hunter at 7-Elevens and Walmarts in the U.S., Canada and Mexico. Under the tab of each can of these Cokes is a code that consumers can then enter in the FIFA game to download exclusive content that can help them along “The Journey.”
In June, EA even created a Twitter account for the character (@MrAlexHunter), which already has 49,900 followers. On Monday, Cola-Cola had the character account tease a still from the game.
Pringles goes all in on social to put college athletes front-and-center for ‘March Mustache’ campaign
Pringles is turning to social media — particularly Instagram — to leverage some of the college athletes playing in the March Madness basketball tournament, with the goal of reaching college basketball fans on second screens.
Short-form video needs better monetization, creator funds aren’t the way to do it
Creator funds have almost been like a stepping stone before a more permanent solution is either considered or put into place.
L’Oreal uses social listening, in-house teams to tap into beauty trends ‘at the speed of culture’
The beauty behemoth is turning to in-house teams to accelerate content production that taps into trends within days, rather than the weeks or months of traditional marketing and advertising timelines.
SponsoredHow advertisers are leveraging omnichannel attribution and measurement to power CTV
Sponsored by MNTN Connected TV advertising has joined and expanded the larger ecosystem of campaigns that advertisers deploy. As such, omnichannel marketing strategies now encompass television and mobile devices, tablets and other screens such as out-of-home. And as customers engage across these different touchpoints, brands are seeking and moving their measurement and analytics efforts to […]
Digiday+ Research deep dive: YouTube holds strong as a reliable marketing channel for agencies and brands
YouTube might not be considered the most exciting marketing channel out there, but brands and agencies see the platform as a reliable marketing channel that delivers consistent success.
With Canva and Adobe’s new updates, the generative AI race enters the brand design space
Canva and Adobe are just two of several major design and visual platforms that are rapidly introducing new generative AI capabilities in the service of brands.


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Wednesday, May 31, 2017
Austin, Texas — The national average APR for new card offers broke another record this week, rising to an all-time high, according to the CreditCards.com Weekly Credit Card Rate Report.
The average is comprised of 100 of the most popular credit cards in the country, including cards from dozens of leading U.S. issuers and representing every card category. Introductory (teaser) rates are not included in the calculation.
Rates for card categories tracked by CreditCards.com are listed below:
|Credit Card Rate Averages|
|Avg. APR||Last Week||6 Months ago|
|Bad Credit||23.23%||23.23%||22.86%|| Source: CreditCards.com
The national average APR climbed to 15.82 percent, which is the highest average APR CreditCards.com has recorded since it began tracking rates in mid-2007.
Bank of America helped kick off this week's rate change with a 1-point rate increase on two of its basic, lower rate cards. The BankAmericard and the BankAmericard for Students now charge a minimum APR of 12.74 percent and a maximum APR of 22.74 percent.
Walmart also increased the APR on the Walmart MasterCard by a quarter of a percent this week, causing its minimum APR to rise to 17.65 percent. In addition, CreditCards.com swapped out two cards that are no longer promoted online with rewards cards that charge somewhat higher APRs.
The CreditCards.com credit card rate survey (permalink: https://www.creditcards.com/rate-report) is conducted weekly, using offer data from leading U.S. card issuers' websites. Introductory offer periods and regular interest rates will vary with applicants' credit quality and issuer risk-based pricing policies.
CreditCards.com is the leading online credit card marketplace connecting consumers with multiple credit card issuers, including a majority of the 10 largest in the United States, based on credit card transaction volume. CreditCards.com, https://www.creditcards.com, enables consumers to search for, compare and apply for credit cards and offers credit card issuers an online channel to acquire qualified applicants.
For more information, contact:
Senior Industry Analyst
512-996-8663, ext. 103
NOTE TO EDITORS: The information contained in this release is available for print or broadcast with attribution to CreditCards.com.


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Apple fans clamouring for the two new iPhones formed a kilometre-long queue in Tokyo Friday, but high prices in Asia and the lack of a new tie-up in the vast China market dampened the global roll out.
By adding a fingerprint scanner to its newest mobile phone, Apple Inc is offering a tantalising glimpse of a future where your favourite gadget might become a biometric pass to the workplace, mobile commerce or real-world shopping and events.
Apple chief executive Tim Cook believes that "over the arc of time" China is a huge opportunity for his pathbreaking company. But time looks to be on the side of rival Samsung Electronics Co Ltd, which has been around far longer and penetrated much deeper into the world's most populous country.
Taiwan's top foundries may need to rein in expectations for the second half of the year as high-end smartphone sales growth cools and chip buyers look to ship more low-cost, low-margin gadgets to emerging markets like China.
Samsung Electronics Co Ltd missed already modest expectations for its quarterly earnings guidance on Friday, deepening worries that its smartphone business may have peaked, as growth in sales of its blockbuster Galaxy phones begins to wane and new rivals emerge to eat away at its market share.
nVidia unveiled Project Shield at the Consumer Electronics Show in the United States early this year.
Lenovo Group Ltd is on track to overtake HP as the world's biggest PC maker by sales as soon as this year.


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Upstate New York has taken the phrase "Buy American" to heart when it comes to picking out a new car or truck.
Toyota and Honda were the most popular models statewide in 2017, according to state data on vehicle registrations. They were not, however, at the top of the upstate rankings, and American brands such as Chevrolet, Ford, Buick and GMC all sold better upstate than they did downstate.
(While seemingly everyone has their own definition of upstate, for the purposes of this story, it's all 53 counties north and west of Rockland and Westchester counties, New York City and Long Island.)
While the state does not release vehicle sales numbers, you can measure the popularity of car and truck brands by the number of registrations filed in the state, especially when looking at recent model years.
Click through the slideshow above to see the top 20 makes, ranked by the number of 2017 registrations filed in upstate counties of New York.


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Gov. Tom Wolf is calling on state lawmakers to do more to help Pennsylvanians get back to work and help the state’s economy recover from his COVID-19 business shutdown order by taking immediate action to provide an additional $325 million in aid for small businesses.
“This would be to direct an additional $225 million partially in forgivable loans and partially in grants to small businesses all across Pennsylvania,” Wolf said at a news conference held in the atrium of Buchart Horn Inc.'s headquarters in York. “In addition, I’m calling on the Legislature to direct another $100 million in forgivable loans and grants to the hospitality, leisure and service industry. Bars, restaurants, hotels, they’ve been really hammered by this pandemic."
- Wolf ‘can’t conceive’ that Pa. legislature will override his planned veto of high school sports attendance bill
The funding for these grants and forgivable loans would come out of the $1 billion unspent federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act funding that the state received earlier in the year.
“We seen which industries and which businesses have been hardest hit by this pandemic. We know now more than we did before,” Wolf said. " Now we must provide the support and funding businesses need to recover from this crisis."
This proposed relief program for small businesses would build on the $225 million of CARES Act funding that the state already has directed to the COVID-19 small business assistance grant program.
Already, about half of those dollars have been awarded to nearly 5,000 businesses – half of which were restaurants and other businesses in the hospitality industry – across all 67 counties in the first round of grant awards announced in July. The other half will be awarded in two weeks, said Dan Betancourt, president and CEO of Lancaster-based Community First Fund and chairman of the Pennsylvania’s network of Community Development Financial Institutions, which are administering the grant program.
Betancourt said the more than 50,000 businesses that submitted applications for the first round of grants and indicated they sustained over $865 million in losses from the pandemic. The second round drew an additional 10,000 applications seeking $150 million in assistance, bringing the damage done to small businesses to over $1 billion.
“That’s what we’re trying to help out overcome in Pennsylvania because we know our small businesses have to have a chance to restart here in Pennsylvania,” Betancourt said. Afterward, he said he is advising the governor to drop the idea of providing some of the proposed assistance in the form of forgivable loans because “a lot of business owners are nervous about borrowing money.”
Kevin Schreiber, president and CEO of the York County Economic Alliance, said from their data, they know that 70% of small businesses in York County alone were unable to access the federal Paycheck Protection Program and it disproportionately impacted business owned by persons of color.
The $225 million in small business grants, which directs a portion of the money to historically disadvantaged businesses, along with the CARES Act funding directed to counties and the additional $325 million that Wolf is calling for the General Assembly to approve “are absolutely vital and critical to our commonwealth’s recovery,” Schreiber said.
State Rep. Carol Hill-Evans, D-York County, who attended the news conference, threw her support behind the governor’s call for more help for businesses. She called on legislators to "put aside political differences to quickly pass much needed legislation that will help keep our small businesses afloat.”
Later, a dozen Republican members who represent York County in the General Assembly issued a statement saying the reason small businesses are facing the struggles they are is because of Wolf’s “prolonged and inconsistent business shutdown policies."
“His policies have benefited corporate-owned big box stores that have operated with very few restrictions over the last six months, all while our locally owned businesses, including our family-owned bars, restaurants, and taverns, continue to face barriers not backed by publicly accessible data,” according to their statement.
They said if the governor wants to work with the General Assembly, he needs to talk with legislators instead of dictating orders through media events.
Wolf said during the news conference, there have been conversations going on with the Legislature since the pandemic began. He said that is what led to the appropriation of $225 million of CARES funding for the small business grant program.
“I appreciate the relationship we have,” he said. “Obviously, we are two different parties. We have some very big disagreements but we’ve been able to get a lot of things done. I think fundamentally that’s an important thing.”
Jan Murphy may be reached at email@example.com. Follow her on Twitter at @JanMurphy.


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Apple announced its plan last year to spend roughly $900 million opening 40 new retail locations in 2012. In March, we told you new stores were coming to Germany, Spain, Australia, and France‘s Burgundy wine region, and several reports this week confirmed a handful of new locations for the United Kingdom, France, and Canada. Ten of the 40 stores Apple planned for 2012 will début in the U.S., and recent reports indicated two of those U.S. stores will be located in California and Salt Lake City… Read more
Yesterday, we reported that the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission wants Apple to lose the “4G” marketing for the third-generation iPad, alleging it misleads consumers into thinking the device is capable of accessing 4G networks in Australia. Reports from ABC news quickly followed and claimed Apple would give refunds to customers and publish clarification regarding incompatibility with the Telstra network. Apple’s AU website now has “Ultrafast wireless” instead of “Ultrafast 4G” on the main features page, despite still advertising 4G as a highlight of the device through its international sales pages.
Now, authorities in other countries where the new iPad is not compatible with local 4G networks are investigating the issue. Authorities in at least the United Kingdom and Sweden confirmed they are considering investigations…
We reported last night that Apple officially appointed CEO of Dixons John Browett as its senior vice president of Retail following Ron Johnson’s departure in October of last year. Browett is leaving his position at Dixons Retail, which operates various United Kingdom-based retail stores including Currys, Currys.digital, and PC World. Dixons is one of the largest electronics chains in Europe, and PC World, the last on that list, is one of the largest computer/consumer electronic retailers in the U.K. It also has a reputation of being a big-box consumer electronic store that consumers describe as “the worst of Best Buy and Radio Shack combined.”
While U.K. product-testing and consumer advocacy group Which? consistently ranked both Currys Digital and PC World at the bottom of its research regarding the Top 100 retail chains, a report from Financial Times explained “Apple has mystery shopped and been impressed.” Specifically, the report mentioned “a system of decision trees to match customers with products” that Browett has implemented while at Dixons.
The calculation of Mr Cook may be that if Mr Browett is good at selling people products that bore them, he will do even better selling them i-gadgets that they lust after.
According to reports in November from BBC, Browett recently renovated more than 250 stores, implemented new service, and customer support strategies. However, the company reported first-half losses of just over £25 million (slightly lower than expected, but higher than losses of £6.9 million the year prior). In 2009, Retail Week (via GigaOm) profiled Browett, calling him “affable and intellectual” and describing his “schoolboy enthusiasm” for technology during a trip to PC World. Here is an excerpt:
We have seen Siri clones in the Android Market trying to pass themselves off as the real thing, and some Siri alternatives making their way to the Windows Phone Marketplace. Evi, on the other hand, might actually be the first true Siri competitor/alternative for Android and non-iPhone 4S iOS users.
Available on the App Store for 99 cents and free to Android users on the Android Market, Evi is the work of True Knowledge and its “core semantic search technology” better known as The True Knowledge Answer Engine. The 99-cent price tag on iOS is apparently to cover the cost of using Nuance voice recognition (the same voice recognition tech as Siri), which is not used in the Android version.
The app’s iTunes page explained Evi is capable of returning local data for the United Kingdom (along with the United States), which has been a complaint from U.K. Siri users since the iPhone 4S launch. According to TechCrunch, the app uses “an ontology of tens of thousands of classes into which” every possible user command can be recognized. True Knowledge said the app contains “almost a billion ‘facts’ (machine understandable bits of knowledge)” with the ability to infer trillions if necessary. It also reportedly uses all the expected sources, such as local results from Yelp, third-party websites, traditional web searches, and APIs.
While as of yet Evi is incapable of integrating with Calendar and Reminders like Siri, TechCrunch pointed out it sometimes provides more accurate and useful results for certain types of questions. Siri requests to search the web for an answer when users ask certain questions, such as “How do I make apple pie?” Evi, however, would provide a list of recipes with relevant links to that specific question. TechCrunch highlighted another example where Evi excels:
Apple expanded its recycling program in the United States in August to give customers an opportunity to —well— recycle their used iPhones and iPads for Apple gift cards, and now the technology giant is extending the program even further by launching a similar initiative in the United Kingdom, Germany and France.
According to its German website (Google translation), Apple will not offer payment in the form of an Apple gift card, but rather as cash deposited into customers bank accounts in exchange for returned devices. Macworld UK and Macerkopf.de (Google translation) confirmed that these same rules apply for the programs in France and the U.K.
“With the Reuse and Recycling Programme, you could turn your old equipment into a brand-new Mac, iPod, iPhone or iPad,” announced Apple. “Whether it’s an iPhone, iPad, Mac or PC computer, working or not, we’ll take it and determine if it qualifies for reuse and has a monetary value. If it does, the amount will be credited directly into your bank account. If it doesn’t, you can recycle it responsibly through one of our free recycling programs.”
The recycling program is made possible through a partnership with Dataserv, and the green measure contributes to Apple’s existing programs —as noted by its website— for recycling Macs, PCs, iPods, mobile phones, and batteries…
Apple does not often have or advertise sales on Boxing Day, a holiday recognized in the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. On the holiday, retailers discount products similar to Black Friday in the United States. However, this year, Canadians are getting a Boxing Week sale on iTunes.
As of right now, Apple is running a promotion in at least the Canadian iTunes store with a selection of 69-cent songs and albums from $5.99, including: Mylo Xyloto by Coldplay, Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites by Skrillex, Foo Fighters’ Wasting Light, and Take Care (Deluxe Version) by Drake. Each album is selling between $5.99 and $7.99. Altogether, there are 30 or more albums offered.
There is also a selection of 69-cent song collections consisting of the top-selling songs from 2011, best songs of 2011, classic hits, and more.
It is unclear whether Apple will have a Boxing Day or Week sale in its Canadian, U.K., or Australian online and retail stores. Canadian retailers typically run Boxing Week sales from Dec. 24 through Jan. 2, but Boxing Day is traditionally recognized on Dec. 26. It appears the iTunes sale has not popped up in the U.K. or Australian stores, but let us know in the comments if it does.
We heard at the beginning of the month that BBC’s iPlayer iPad app would be getting an iPhone and iPod touch version in the coming weeks and today the app has officially landed for UK users. To accompany the release, the app will also be able to stream content over all 3G networks and now officially supports AirPlay on iOS 5.
The company’s blog post notes a ‘Live Channels’ feature will allow you to quickly switch between BBC channels just like on radio and TV, and all BBC national radio stations support background audio for multitasking. They have also made improvements to streaming by introducing HTTP Live Streaming using adaptive bitrate technologies, allowing the app to adjust your streaming quality based on your connection speed. The web version of the app accessible at bbc.co.uk/iplayer will also soon get 3G streaming capabilities. Read more


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Today, 28% of consumer durable sales in India is digitally influenced and this is estimated to reach 63% of total sales, amounting to $23Bn by 2023. $10Bn of this will be online sale, according to Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and Google India report titled ‘Digital Powers Consumer Durables: A $23 billion opportunity by 2023’. The report defines a sale as a ‘digitally influenced sale’ if the buyer uses internet during any stage of purchase cycle.
Projecting a healthy growth rate for Consumer durables (Televisions, Refrigerators, Washing Machines, Air Conditioners, Microwaves, Water Purifiers & Small Kitchen Appliances), the report states that overall Industry will see a growth of 13% to reach $36Bn by 2023.
Report states digital influence varies by product categories today with it being 33% for high average selling price (ASP) durables like ACs, Televisions, Refrigerators and Washing machines and 20% for lower ASP products like small appliances, water purifiers & microwaves
Capturing rise in number of digitally influenced urban consumers, the report states that digital is increasingly playing an important role in consumers' decision to buy a product, and number of digitally influenced consumers have doubled over last 4 years. Digitally influenced consumers have increased 5X in tier 2 and tier 3 cities and digitally influenced women consumers have increased 10X over last 4 years.
Decoding the digital consumer further, the report also highlights important consumer insights as buyers traverse through multiple online and offline touchpoints before making the final purchase. In the pre-purchase phase, approximately 80% of digitally influenced consumers are undecided about their choice of brand when they start their research and spend typically 2-3 weeks on research before making the final purchase. Search, social media, blogs and online videos are the key sources for online research. The report suggests that nearly 2 out of 3 digitally influenced consumers rate online reviews as a significant influencer in their purchase decisions.
Speaking about the key insights, Nimisha Jain, Managing Director & Partner, The Boston Consulting Group, India, said, “18Bn of consumer durable sales will reside with digitally influenced consumers who are undecided on their brands in 2023. Companies will have a short 2-3 week window to influence them and ability to timely & efficiently influence them will determine the winners of the future. "
The report further said, during the purchase phase, low price, convenience and choice of multiple payment options are some of the largest drivers of online conversions. However, absence of in-person guidance and lack of ‘touch & feel’ are the biggest barriers. In the post-purchase phase, the report interestingly calls out that nearly 1 out of every 3 online buyers provides product reviews online post purchase and both, in-store digitally influenced buyers and online buyers look for other offerings from the same brand after completing the purchase.
Calling specific actionable insights for the consumer durables players to seize this opportunity, Vikas Agnihotri, Country Director - Sales, Google India said, “Consumers are creatures of habit, and with growing access and connectivity, we are seeing consumers research online before they arrive at their purchase decisions for almost everything. And while businesses have started to build their digital presence, there is a need to take a holistic approach to digital as the scale of its influence has grown rapidly going well beyond top metros. Businesses need to create an always on digital strategy and create personalised interventions to tap different consumer demographics across all markets to achieve their business goals.”
The findings in this report are based on extensive quantitative survey of 6800 consumer durable buyers and qualitative discussions conducted by Kantar IMRB for the BCG-Google Digital Influence on Consumer Durables Study 2019. Insights from these researches were then combined with BCG’s proprietary models as well as BCG’s industry intelligence.


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Google announced a host of new translation-related features at its Live from Paris event today, including improved contextual search, a redesigned iOS app, and seamless AR translation through Google Lens.
The search giant is improving contextual translation in English, French, German, Japanese and Spanish. This means that words and phrases with multiple meanings are translated based on the context of the text. It’s a great way to make sure your sentence sounds natural and that you use idiomatic words. It works a bit like Linguee and Reverso Context.
This can also be useful to avoid using an offensive or hateful meaning of a sentence when you are not fluent in a language. Google said this update will roll out in the coming weeks and will bring support for more languages in the coming months.
Last year, the company updated the Google Translate Android app with a new design that followed the “Material You” design system. Now it brings new features and a revamped user interface to the iOS app. The updated app has a large microphone button in the bottom center so that users can easily enter text by voice. The iOS app also introduces a dynamic font that makes translations easier to read as you type. Plus, the new design makes it easier to choose languages with fewer taps.
In addition, the redesigned app adds gestures such as swiping down to access recent translations and holding the language button to quickly choose a recently used language.
The iOS app also recently added support for offline translation of 33 new languages, including Basque, Corsican, Hawaiian, Hmong, Kurdish, Latin, Luxembourgish, Sundanese, Yiddish, and Zulu.
Last September, Google showed off a new translation capability that seamlessly blends translated text from the real world into the background image. This means that if you translate a poster written in another language, it won’t look out of place. The company is now rolling out this capability to Android phones with 6 GB of RAM or more.
Aside from this, Google also announced the global launch of multi-search, along with enhancements to Maps, including immersive views in five new cities and expanding the uncluttered directions feature to all users.


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And, via Reddit: Chick-Fil-A has donated more than $1,100,000 to anti-gay hate groups through its “charitable” arm, The Winshape Foundation. And, Chick-Fil-A Donated Nearly $2 Million To Anti-Gay Groups In 2010.
And, Jon Stewart’s take.
Huckabee, Palin, Bachmann & hundreds of thousands of Americans come out to support Chick-fil-A.
Always liked Huckabee. Never marked him for a friend of bigots.
Hundreds of thousands of people across the country headed to Chick-fil-A restaurants on Wednesday, answering a callfrom Mike Huckabee, the former governor of Arkansas, to show support for the fast-food chain after the company’s president drew criticism for his opposition to same-sex marriage…
Last weekend, Mr. Huckabee used his television and radio programs, as well as Facebook, to help organize an appreciation day for Chick-fil-A on Wednesday.
More than 650,000 people signed up to participate, and tens of thousands “liked” photos of packed restaurants that Mr. Huckabee posted on his Facebook page on Wednesday…
…click here for the rest.
Cheers, Mayor Menino (bonus: the below is printed on recycled paper). This makes me proud to have been a longtime Bostonian:


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What UK SMEs could look forward to after Brexit
Fears of financial headwinds loom over the UK’s small businesses as Britain’s exit from the European Union is no longer a matter of if but when.
No matter what the final outcome of the negotiation surrounding Britain’s exit from the European Union – whether there is a deal or not – changes will occur. A fundamental shift in the way Britain does business and obtain funding to do business will happen for sure.
There has been a petition to cancel Brexit altogether and to date, the proposal has gathered five million signatures. Still, there remains no significant movement indicating that this petition is on the table. What has been running are discussions on whether the UK parliament will ever approve or disapprove Prime Minister Theresa May’s new deal.
If Brexit happens as planned, by March 29, UK businesses will start trading with Europe under rules set by the World Trade Organization. A no deal Brexit means 90 percent of European Union goods would get higher tariffs when exported. The best-case scenario under this possibility is that WTO grants England the most favored nation status and keep tariffs at an average of roughly 4.3 percent. The higher tariffs will be placed on food, agricultural items, as well as automotive and textile products. As for tariffs on imports, there would be an average of 5.7 percent.
Apart from tariffs, UK businesses will suddenly have to learn new rules regarding how to obtain valid paperwork as there would be different rules as they cross borders while they conduct businesses. Until now, it remained to be decided whether these certifications will be issued by the UK, the EU or the specific country where goods will pass during trading. Aside from business permits, employees who used to have no problems under the EU arrangement would suddenly have to secure proper immigrant documentation.
At the receiving end of all these are UK’s 5.6 million small and midsize enterprises, which unlike the large corporations, would have no immediate capital to fund the transition. UK’s SMEs currently employs an estimated 16.3 million people and generated $2.6 trillion revenue in 2018. The bigger fear is that they might be compelled to secure loans and financial assistance which analysts said may just throw them all away to insolvency.
Small businesses endure unpredictability brought by Brexit
As mentioned above, SMEs would have to deal with increased levies, expensive fees for paperwork trail, and cross border transportations as well as problems with employees outside the UK.
So far, SMEs have already made their contingency plans for a no-deal Brexit. The most common decisions have been breaking ties with business partners outside of the UK even if they have been collaborators for years. Some were already compelled to downsize, laying off employees that are EU nationals.
Elucigene Diagnostics, for example, had to register its products in Malta even if this means cutting ties with its long-time partners. The company, which develops prenatal equipment to diagnose pre-congenital diseases, risks losing most of its clients in the EU if it did not make the important decision of registering in Malta.
Arrowsmith Engineering started stockpiling as early as December to assure clients that it has enough stocks as it endures the impact of transition in the case of a no-deal Brexit.
Stockpiling is also the best option for MI Supplies as it suffered a blow from an already canceled three-year contract with a long-time client due to political instability amid Brexit.
On the other hand, stockpiling is not the wisest option for much smaller businesses like Covent Garden, an Italian boutique hotel and restaurant. It imports wine, salami, and other perishable ingredients from Puglia.
Still, there are a few who remains optimistic. For example, John Wood, the director of Canatronics, said Brexit will be the best opportunity to rebuild Britain’s manufacturing sector. Canatronics is a supplier of lighting and timers for industrial buildings. Wood said the company is looking into building a new relationship with Chinese suppliers which could actually cost less than their EU counterparts.
What lies ahead after Brexit
With the EU gone, the UK may have to secure new bilateral trade deals with other countries. For one, there still the United States and Australia. But, the promise of a booming free trade is strongest with India. The Southeast Asian country is rapidly becoming the third largest economy by 2030. The market, which is the world’s second most populous nation, has plenty of room for more trade relations.
As Brexit remains under negotiations, UK and Indian officials have started to foster stronger bilateral relations and one way would be having both governments continue to support SMEs. The first step to this is abstract at this point but the goal would be for these SMEs to find other markets and make themselves sustainable and profitable internationally.
The UK will not actually start on a blank slate when it comes with trade relations with India. The growth of Indian goods exported and imported to England has increased by about fourfold since 2000.
In 2016 alone, the bilateral trade between the two nations reaches as much as $20 billion. That year they traded goods and services worth $13 billion and $6 billion respectively. India, that year, was India’s 13th largest goods export market.
Growth is also accelerating on UK’s exports to India of services that are focused on technology such as telecommunications, computer, and information services, as well as financial services, insurance and pension. India has also been planning to build 100 smart cities and is looking to the UK for imports related to infrastructure building as well as cybersecurity capabilities.
The UK secures post-Brexit deal with Caribbean countries
As of March 22, reports were out that the UK, through its Department for International Trade, has entered into different trade deals with Caribbean countries. The deal closed amounted to as much as $3.2 billion and span across different countries including Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent, and the Grenadines.
The Caribbean deals were secured after similar trade agreements were signed with Switzerland, Fiji, and Papua New Guinea.
Looking forward after Brexit
Many believe that the best scenario would be for the UK to drop Brexit altogether and let trade relations with EU continues as of how they are. However, developments are beyond the people’s control and decisions rely on government officials running the country.
For the majority, a no deal Brexit is far from ideal. And while there are enough reasons for SMEs to worry about the impact of the transition, there is a lot to look forward to when it comes to the evolution or progress of conducting businesses with other countries.
In the end, did Brexit really bring more harm than good? Or will it open newer possibilities for the UK’s small business sector?
(Featured image by James Jiao via Shutterstock)
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Anduril Industries cofounder Palmer Luckey says his company didn’t want to “use the same blueprint that everyone else was using” when designing its new Ghost 4 intelligence, reconnaissance and surveillance drone. In other words, he wanted to avoid designing a small quadcopter configuration UAV.
“Everyone makes quadcopters because they’re easy to manufacture and easy to design. They’re also easy for a computer to control. You’re just modulating the RPM of four props.”
One look at the Ghost 4 convinced me that the company’s designers had looked to another blueprint – the helicopter. Anduril’s new ISR drone looks like a scaled-down Sikorsky CH-54 Tarhe, a huge heavy-lift helicopter designed for the Army in the late 1950s. The resemblance isn’t coincidental.
“We decided we were going to look at what missions we were going to do, what we needed to carry, and figure out the optimal airframe,” Luckey says. “When you look at the core aerodynamics involved, the helicopter is actually a very good design.”
It’s a design that Palmer Luckey enjoys firsthand. The former Oculus founder told me he has a collection of seven to eight helicopters that he flies regularly including a UH-60 Black Hawk, presumably U.S. military surplus.
Helicopters, even scaled-down ones, says Luckey, are more efficient than quadcopters, combining higher payload capability, greater powertrain flexibility and quieter, slower-spinning rotors. He acknowledges their mechanical complexity is a challenge, particularly for what is intended as a rugged ISR drone. They’re also tough to control.
“It is much harder to design a software flight controller that can fly a helicopter, especially at the smaller end where it’s not passively stable from being big like a full-sized manned helicopter.”
He cites small radio-controlled helicopters in talking about the flight control challenge, suggesting another source of inspiration for the Ghost 4. Throughout our interview, he used the term “helicopter” repeatedly, falling back on the industry-standard “UAS” or “drone” only a couple times. In his eyes, Ghost is clearly better than the competition in part because it’s a miniaturized helicopter.
The Ghost of AI
The headline features of the Ghost 4 include a modular design, longer flight times (approximately 100 minutes) than the prior version, better teaming/swarming with other Ghosts, and capacity to perform other missions from signals intelligence and electronic warfare to cargo delivery and stealthy intrusion.
Underpinning Ghost’s capabilities, and those of other Anduril Industries products including perimeter (or border) security sensors and a counter-UAS drone, is the company’s Lattice artificial intelligence software. Lattice is an AI backbone that Anduril describes as using “computer vision, machine learning and mesh networking to fuse real-time data into a single, autonomous operating picture.”
A Lattice AI Core is in all of Anduril’s products, including previous versions of the Ghost, a building block that Luckey says elevates Anduril above the competition. As Forbes senior editor Jeremy Bogaisky previously noted, it’s difficult to judge the effectiveness of Anduril’s systems or those of other drone/counter-drone makers, some of which also claim similar technology.
Anduril says the latest iteration of Lattice AI is capable of performing 32 trillion operations per second, which it says is nearly 100 times faster than computational speeds of other sUAS on the market. The company emphasizes the autonomy this gives Ghost, working independently or in swarms. Any ISR platform, particularly unmanned, with the ability to do onboard image processing/edge computing and thus pass data directly to tactical users is of great interest to the U.S. military.
It doesn’t hurt that Ghost is also made in the USA. That’s a plus from a U.S. government acquisitions standpoint as well as a good fit with Palmer Luckey’s well-known support for President Trump. DoD has attempted to court agile Silicon Valley tech developers with limited success for years, but have politics made any difference to sales of Anduril’s offerings?
“In my admittedly limited experience, it hasn’t come up,” he says. “It seems like DoD is pretty apolitical. Most of the people seem to be firm believers in a meritocracy for getting the right system.” Luckey adds that Anduril got “strong bipartisan support for our border protection program ... I’ve been pleasantly surprised.”
Payloads, Price & Buyers
One of the strongpoints for Ghost 4 versus its quadcopter (largely DJI or DJI-inspired) competition is its payload flexibility. A rail along the top, and forward fuselage structure under the main rotor offers several waterproof payload bays for sensors, radios, even a loud-hailer.
The six-and-a-half-foot long Ghost 4 also features a nose mounting point for electro-optical/infrared sensors or unspecified effectors (lasers, jammers?). The drone can be disassembled and packed in a backpack or box for deployment. No weight was given but its fine machining suggests it might be heavy.
You can swap the powertrain out, too. The direct-drive motor just below the rotor is easily replaced, according to Luckey. “It’s not that expensive and it’s literally just four bolts.” Powertrain life is currently limited to about 500 hours but Anduril is trying to get the time between overhaul or replacement up to the “thousands of hours,” Luckey says.
Ghost 4 will likely cost well into the thousands of dollars. Luckey cited the $3,000-plus cost of high-end Chinese DJI drones in a blog he wrote about Ghost 4. Asked how his product compares, he won’t give a specific price but concedes that it will be significantly more expensive.
“We’re not trying to compete with them on a dollar-to-dollar basis. Most of our customers are willing to spend more to get more.”
Current customers for previous versions of the Ghost and Anduril’s counter-drone “Anvil” sUAS include the U.S. Marines, U.K. Royal Marines and Future Commando Force, U.S. Customs and Border Protection and a “few other federal government customers,” according to Luckey. Some of these will upgrade to Ghost 4. The Royal Marines will likely be the first Ghost 4 customer, swapping their earlier Ghosts for the latest version. Anduril couldn’t confirm a finalized contract by press time.
Anduril is keen to play up the improved swarming capabilities of Ghost 4, claiming that Lattice AI enables a single operator to control dozens over a wide geographical area, their collective sensors and smarts revealing valuable intelligence and images. However when pressed, Luckey does something few drone makers are eager to do. He (admirably) acknowledges that unmanned platforms and AI are only as good as the classic “junk in, junk out” maxim suggests.
“It’s not going to have the flexibility of a human pilot to pick up anomalies. If you say I want a swarm of 24 Ghosts to cover a few hundred square mile area and tell me where surface to air missile sites are and they see something happening below unrelated to [the SAM tasking], that’s something they’ll end up missing.”
One of the most notable things missing from Ghost 4 is an easily detected, loud quadcopter noise signature. Josh Wolfe, co-founder of Anduril investor, Lux Capital, tweeted that Ghost 4 is “super silent” as seen in company video of the drone. It may not be super silent but it is decidedly quieter than commercial drones.
Ghost 4’s main rotor spins slowly at under 1,000 rpm, Luckey explains. That makes controlling the UAV more challenging but its low disc loading means it’s audibly discreet.
“We’re quieter than every DJI drone, even when we’re carrying 10 times more payload,” Luckey quips.
Just like a helicopter.


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MOSCOW—Two Kremlin critics were sentenced to 15 days in jail on Wednesday, as Russian authorities moved to crack down on "walkabout" protests that have become the latest form of opposition to newly inaugurated President Vladimir Putin.
Blogger Alexei Navalny and leftist leader Sergei Udaltsov were found guilty of disobeying police orders. Both had been leading protests in recent days in which Moscovites strolled round the clock through city parks, wearing white ribbons in support of open elections.
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The 343 Industries team is celebrating the holiday season in Halo Infinite’s multiplayer with a new event called Winter Contingency, which has now started in the shooter. Once again, players can look forward to numerous cosmetic rewards that can be unlocked in the coming days. Here the makers took the criticism from the previous event to heart and made several changes to the process. Accordingly, 343 Industries is now distributing a gift to the players every day. All you have to do is play one game a day. A total of ten items will be available until January 4, 2022.
- Wild Justice – Epic Nameplate
- Peppermint Laughter – Rare Armor Coating (Mark 7)
- UA/Tatius – Rare Left Shoulder Pad (Mark 7)
- UA/Tatius – Rare Right Shoulder Pad (Mark 7)
- Peppermint Laughter – Rare Weapon Coating – Assault Rifle
- Snowmageddon – Epic Backdrop
- NAVLOGCOM – Rare Nameplate
- Peppermint Laughter – Rare Weapon Coating – Sidekick
- Myesel Ammo Pouch – Rare Utility (Mark 7)
- Sunset Contessa – Epic Armor Coating (Mark 7)
Halo Infinite’s multiplayer is available as a free-to-play title for Xbox Series X | S, Xbox One, and PC. The campaign was also published earlier this month.


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DENVER — Rockies baseball is back on Blake Street with Opening Day on Friday, April 8.
The annual Colorado holiday won't just be a party inside the ballpark as many Denver restaurants are celebrating with their own deals, special menus and weekend celebrations.
Here's where you can soak in the sights, smells and tastes of opening weekend.
The newly opened BEZEL will celebrate Opening Day on Friday with a band, beer specials, and baseball-themed menu items. Specialty items include The Rock Pile, a purple drink in honor of the Rockies, and Three Strike Sliders.
The celebrations will take place from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. and games will be played all day in the lobby.
Cherry Cricket Ballpark
The Cherry Cricket Ballpark will feature their famous burgers and shakes along with grab-and-go ballpark pretzels and queso for $6.
Citizen Rail will be grilling on its patio at 16th and Wewatta from 12 p.m. to 3 p.m. Friday. Grill Master Chef Christian Graves and his team will be serving up specialty Kimchee Hot Dogs for $5 and beers to go for $5.
Citizen Rail's signature cocktails will also be available to-go.
Denver Union Station
Denver Union Station is holding an Opening Day celebration on Friday. Designed for the entire family, the festivities kick off on the Terminal Bar patio starting at 10 a.m. with a baseball art installation photo booth. The first 50 guests who pose and upload their GIFs and photos to social media and tag Denver Union Station will be rewarded with a free slice of house-made apple pie.
Free and open to all, guests can enjoy a house DJ set, sample brews from Tivoli Brewing, play giant Jenga and corn hole and interact with stilt walkers. Face painters will be on hand to help kids show off their Rockies pride.
Terminal Bar will be serving Game Day food specials – including breakfast burritos, Rockies brats, gyro tacos and a baseball burger and fries.
Deviation Distilling is celebrating its first Opening Day weekend in the Dairy Block Alley, opening at noon on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Deviation Distilling will serve $8 to-go gin lemonades in commemorative purple cups. They also have put together a recipe for the classic purple Aviator gin cocktail, made purple by creme de violette.
Just blocks from Coors Field, Great Divide Brewing Company will have $5 Wild Raspberry Ales all day plus two freshly tapped beers: Opening Day Hefe & Vanilla Milkshake IPA. Spice Flow will be serving game day food.
Tamayo by Richard Sandoval is offering a combo special – Coors Light and Perro Caliente (bacon-wrapped hot dog) for $7 all day.
Tom's Watch Bar
The official bar of Colorado Rockies, Tom's Watch Bar, is located across the street from Coors Field in McGregor Square.
Rockies mascot Dinger will be at Tom's Watch Bar for a meet and greet Saturday, April 9 from 3 p.m. to 4 p.m.
Wynkoop Brewing Company will tap Lockout Maibock, a new beer lagered according to German tradition, but brewed with American hops.
Brunch starts at 9 a.m. Friday with dogs and brats on the outside grill, Cracker Jacks with a special prize (free beer coupon) plus grab-and-go pretzels and beer cheese for $6.
> Do you know of another spot to add to this list? Email us!
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“Don’t think too much and make it happen!”Continue Reading
Maker Faire Bay Area 2014
Meet the Makers
Explore makers and projects that participated in Maker Faire Bay Area 2014. You can choose to browse by topic or you can browse maker exhibits alphabetically. You can also review the Program and Presentation Lineup.
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With it’s striking skyline, neon boulevards, bustling waterfront, and rich history it is no surprise that Shanghai is home to innovators and makers of all kinds. To celebrate this diverse and vibrant community, event producers City Moments and co-organizer Tongji University College of Design and Innovation have organized the first Maker Faire in the city […]Continue Reading
Join the fun at the East Bay Mini Maker Faire LIVE from Oakland, CA this Sunday, October 25th! Although the Faire’s 11th annual celebration, this year things will look quite different with a shift from a cheerful family friendly melee to a high energy, 3 hour ONLINE celebration. And check out the fantastic collection of […]Continue Reading
What happens when seven Maker Faires decide to hold a virtual event across the whole state of New York? YOU get to make, engage, and learn all weekend! Tune in this Friday & Saturday, October 16th & 17th, as makers from across New York State and the world share their knowledge through workshops and presentations, […]Continue Reading
Poster Design: Nakanishi Yosuke Ever wanted to see what makers get up to in Japan? Here’s your chance! The always wonderful Maker Faire Tokyo kicks off this weekend at its usual forum at Tokyo Big Sight, Japan’s largest expo hall located in the city’s waterfront district, and online. Produced by the O’Reilly Japan team, who […]Continue Reading
The 7th annual Maker Faire Eindhoven kicks off this weekend, revealing that there are always new opportunities to innovate, explore, and inspire. Held in the in the Klokgebouw, a former Philips Philite (Bakelite) factory along Strijp-S, in what is now the heart of the city’s industrial arts district, this year’s Maker Faire Eindhoven will break […]Continue Reading
2020 has been a difficult year. As folks are struggling to survive through the challenges wrought by a global pandemic, economic uncertainty, and social unrest, we asked ourselves if an event would even be appropriate right now. After postponing the event twice, we had numerous meetings about the role of Maker Faire Miami in the […]Continue Reading